Shuuka Hijiri
Appearance Shuuka, despite her rather odd natural hair color, chooses to dye her hair pitch-black in order to avoid standing out. Her eyes are a bright shade of yellow that others have described as "creepy." She has a fair skin tone and is of moderate height, and while slim, she has a fairly toned body due to her physical conditioning. Shuuka's bangs are swept on both sides of her hair, pinned up with bobby pins. Behind her left ear, she tucks a heliopsis flower. Her hair is cropped short and straight-cut, save for a long strand of hair on either side of her head. Her outfit consists of a yellow scarf, an orange kimono-like tunic, a red skirt, and black skintight shorts and arm-warmers. (shoes, binch??????) Personality Shuuka is a bright, tomboyish girl who always tries her best in all her endeavors. She is rather naive and sheltered, and combined with her recklessness and short temper, land her in a variety of perilous situations. For people who don't like her, Shuuka is needlessly stubborn, exhausting to be around, and in short, ''a huge idiot. ''However, for some reason, most people tend to be charmed by her earnestness and good intentions. Shuuka usually respects authority figures and the law, but she isn't afraid to break the rules if she feels like they conflict with her own morals. She loves playing the hero and being praised, despite her self-proclaimed modesty. She is deeply insecure and relies heavily on the validation that doing good deeds brings to her. Despite her brashness, Shuuka has a deep inferiority complex and hates feeling like she is being ostracized or excluded. She is very hardworking and a laughably poor liar, and is gullible to boot. She lacks wisdom and doesn't quite understand limits and boundaries, and is rather prideful and stubborn, often leading to training herself to the point of exhaustion, or accidents. Backstory The infant who would become Shuuka was discovered in the wood in a bed of flowers, not native to the area, by an elderly couple, Concerned that a small child was somehow impervious to the protective charms placed around the area, the couple decided to adopt her for her own protection, giving her their surname "Hijiri." While her parents were gentle and caring, Shuuka brightened up the Atago Shrine with her boisterous personality and smile. She deeply loved her parents, and strived to become an ideal, well-behaved child. She was mostly successful, despite her propensity for getting into trouble, save for one major factor. Even after years of trying, Shuuka was completely unable to do magic or learn any of the Hijiri family's swordmaking or sealing arts, making her feel deeply inadequate. When her parents revealed the origin of her adoption to her, Shuuka was further depressed. She felt like she would never become a "true daughter" to her parents, unable to carry on the family's legacy. However, she was not disheartened, and threw herself further into both studying magic and practicing sword arts, despite her parents' concern. This fire would become even more intense when she found out about the tragic deaths of her parents' birth children, both encouraging and pressuring her to "make up" for the other two. She would take to tracking down youkai and malicious spirits in the area, try to seal them, and then fail horrifically, resulting in multiple near-death situations. One day, she was messing with a rather nasty spirit on the edge of the forest, when the spell she was attempting backfired and left her at the mercy of the spirit. Alone and vulnerable, Shuuka was saved by a pair of girls who had been hiking in the area. However, realizing that one of the girls was a wraith, Shuuka thought that she must have been threatening the other girl, and activated the strongest exorcising seal she had in her possession. In Shuuka's hands, it only managed to stun the wraith, but this elicited the wrath of the supposed-victim, who poisoned her and threatened her to remove the seal. Unable to do so on her own, Shuuka took the pair to the shrine where she lived, so her parents could assist them. (I should really write this out as a fic). Shuuka discovered that this girl happened to be the spirit of one of her parents' children, who had become a wraith. After the seal was removed, and the conflict resolved. Shuuka decided to follow the two back to Osaka Gakuen, in order to keep an eye on Ikiru, who was evidently a sinner, and prevent her from tarnishing the family name. Boldly, Shuuka declared in front of many that she would study magic so that she would be able to exorcise Ikiru one day. Abilities Shuuka is rather clumsy and bad at studying. She also a disastrously poor cook, messy, and utterly lacking in any artistic or musical talent. Even though she's a walking disaster, however, she has perfect punctuality and is rarely ever late for anything. Swordsmanship While futilely trying to study magic and sealing, Shuuka tries and actually succeeds in fighting with swords. She is quite physically fit and powerful, able to defeat many other swordsmen with pure technique. However, it's all she has, as she's unable to utilize any magical properties of swords, and is unable to harm creatures without a corporeal body, such as ghosts. Shuuka has gone through many swords in her adolescence, due to her strength and recklessness. However, the pair that she found in an old storeroom, that she felt "a strange, kind of friendly presence from," have never shattered despite her horrible history with swords. She has a katana, called "Banshouken," whose blade appears shattered, but fused together with a strange golden metal, achieving a visual effect similar to kintsugi. Her wakizashi, "Akatsuki" appears similarly shattered, except held together with a bright red metal. Despite their fragile appearance, the swords are exceptionally durable and don't require sharpening, though Shuuka diligently cares for them nonetheless. she also gets a GUN or something? Notes *Shuuka's name means "autumn flower," a reference to the season during which she was adopted by her foster parents. *The flower Shuuka wears, heliopsis, is also known as a "false sunflower," and blooms during autumn. *Her katana's name, "Banshouken." means "sunset sword." Her wakizashi's name, "Akatsuki," means "red moon." Category:Character Category:Android Category:Female